Kevin Barrett is an instructor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison who takes a conspiratorial view on 9/11, namely that our government had something to do with it.

His ideas are hardly novel — if they are to you, check out Alex Jones' websites  www. prisonplanet.com  and  www.infowars.com — but the way that Republican lawmakers in that state are reacting you would think he had suggested that Bush was the antichrist.

“They apparently have no limits to what can be taught in the classroom,” Representative Steve Nass said of the university’s decision to allow Mr. Barrett to teach a class this fall titled “Islam: Religion and Culture.”

“Barrett has got to go,’’ Mr. Nass, a Whitewater Republican, said. “It is an embarrassment for the state of Wisconsin. It is an embarrassment for the university.”

Thankfully, the University is resistant to such legislative pressure. 

The university’s chancellor, John D. Wiley, said that he was baffled by Mr. Barrett’s beliefs but that they were irrelevant in the classroom, where he must stick to a syllabus that has been approved by the department. That syllabus includes a week devoted to the war on terror.

A 10-day university review had determined that Mr. Barrett presented a variety of viewpoints and that he had not discussed his personal opinions in the classroom, Mr. Wiley said.

“I think it would be a serious mistake for legislators to try to get in and micromanage curriculum,” said Mr. Wiley, who added that university officials would keep an eye on Mr. Barrett by meeting with him throughout the semester. “We don’t go around and question all our instructors to find out what all their views are.”

Situations like these remind us why tenure was created in the first place.  As an academic, I have often criticized tenure for fostering an atmosphere of complacency among my colleagues, but in such heated, self-righteous and politically correct times, I am one hundred percent in favor of it.

If legislatures, or any arm of government, is allowed to start micromanaging curricula, then education in the model most of us have experienced it is essentially over.

The link:  http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/01/education/01madison.html?_r=1&ref=us&oref=slogin